When Captain Meriwether Lewis and his men arrived in the Jefferson River Valley in August 1805, they explored the tributaries of the Jefferson River (today's Beaverhead River), which was named after President Thomas Jefferson. They named it tributaries Philanthrophy and Wisdom, in homage of the President's character. These rivers are now referred as the Ruby and Big Hole respectively.

During exploration, Captain Lewis made a broad loop south of present day Twin Bridges, observing the Ruby and Beaverhead Rivers. He walked about 15 miles up the Big Hole River before returning to his men. After this journey, he was convinced that the Jefferson River was he route to travel.

Erected by Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

Explorations of Lewis and Clark 1804-1806

Cartographic Reconstruction UTM Zone 12

Map Number 262-263

With only a sextant, chronometer, and compass in hand, Captain William Clark was able to map the entire exploration, Cartographer W. Plamondon has traced the trail and recorded the changes of the river's course in the last two hundred years.

Map courtesy of the Washington State University Press, digitally enhanced by Sea Reach Ltd. Background photo courtesy of Rick Graetz, Northern Rockies Publishing.

(There is a great deal of information and detail on this map; some of which has not been transcribed. Click on the images to enlarge them. Entries are presented from top to bottom then left to right best as can be determined:)

Cartographer's Note:

As the river symbols are becoming very narrow the cartographer will not shade the entire length of every water course believed to have flowed during the passage of the expedition. Shading will be used only where it will not compromise other data lines placed within the river banks.

Cartographer's Note:

The cartographer has generally shown the bold, solid, 1805 water line. This was done to ease interpretation by the map reader and does not indicate that the major streams have grown narrower during the past two centuries.

August 6, 1805 "...Drewyer Came to me from Capt. Lewis and informed me that they had explored both forks for 30 or 40 miles & that the one we were ascending was impracticati(c)able much further up & turned imediately to the North,..." Clark ➡︎

Camp (Lewis) Aug. 4, 1805

August 8, 1805 "at now R. Fields joined us had been hunting for Shannon but had not found him." Whitehouse ➡︎ (Note: the above entry covers a portion of a Cartographer's Note:) river tending to the west, .... he called the "Wisdom River." today's Big Hole River. They camped one mile up that fork and somehow made nine miles the following day. The beaver, in their way, had fallen many of the willow and young cottonwood trees growing along each bank. The travelers found themselves having to cut through these downed willows, chopping them in the water, to open a passage.

Camp (Lewis) Aug. 5, 1805 Approximate Area

August 6, 1805 "... we proceeded on with much dificuelty and fatigue over rapids and & Stonce; river about 40 or 50 yards wide much divided by Islands and narrow Bayoce (?) to a low bluff on the Stad. Side & Brackfast, ..." Clark ➡︎

July 11. 1806 "the wind rose and blew with great violence from the SW imediately off Some high mountains covered with Snow, the violence of this wind retarded our progress very much and the river being emencely crooked we had it imediately in our face nearly every bend." Clark ⬅︎

Cartographer's Note:

At this point Clark found it easier to base his traverse on land rather than trying to document every bend in the river. The length of the call distances were much longer than by river. Clark simply stated how many islands and bends appeared in the river. We have no reliable understanding of the definitions he used in identifying what was a bend or an island. How large did an island nee to be before Clark counted it. Channels and sloughs, other than the modern channels of the river, were used by the cartographer whenever descriptions in the journals seem to indicate a particular course.

August 6, 1805 "this report deturmind me to take the middle fork, accordingly Droped down to the forks where I met with Capt. Lewin & party, Capt. Lewis had left a Letter on a pole in the forks informing me what he had discovered & th(e) course of the river &c. this letter was cut down by the (beaver) as it was on a green pole & Carried off." Clark ➡︎

August 8, 1805 "... passed the left hand or North fork has 2 mouths empties in at 2 places but is not as large as the middle fork which we take." Ordway ➡︎

August 5, 1805 "... we ascended this fork about one mile and Encamped on an Island which had lately overflown & was wet we passed a part of the river above the forks which was divided and Scattered thro' the willows in such a manner as to render it difficuelt to pass through for a 1/4 of a mile, we were oblige to Cut our way thro' the willows," Clark ➡︎

August 7, 1805 "despatched R. Fields to hunt Shannon, who was out hunting, on Wisdom river at the time I returned down that Stream, ..." Clark ➡︎

August 8, 1805 "a clear cold morning. Sent out eairly to hunt." Whitehouse ➡︎

July 11, 1806 "at 6 P.M. I passed Phalanhrophy river which I proceved was very low." Clark ⬅︎

August 4, 1805 "... went about 6 miles when we came to a fork of the river; crossed the south branch and from a high knob discovered that the river had forked below us, as we could see the timber on the north branch about 6 or 7 miles from the south and west branches. We therefore crossed to the north branch, and finding it not navigable for our canoes, went down to the confluence and left a note for Capt. Clarke directing him to take the left hand branch. We then went up the north branch about 10 miles and encamped on it." Gass ➡︎

'August 7, 1805 "...Camped on the Lard. Side above the mouth of a bold running Stream 12 yards wide, which we call turf Creek from the number of bogs" Clark ➡︎

Camp Aug. 7, 1805

Camp Aug. 5, 1805

July 11, 1806 "Wisdom river is very high and falling." Clark ⬅︎

August 7, 1805 "...as our Store(s) were a little exorsted and one Canoe became unnecessary deturmind to leave one. " Clark ➡︎

(August 5, 1805)

"passed the mouth of principal fork which falls in on the Lard. Side, this fork is about the Size of the Stard. one less water reather not so rapid, its Course as far as can be Seen is S. E & appear to pass through between two mountains, the N W. fork being the one most in our course i.e. S 25 W. as far as I can See, deturmind me to take this fork as the principal and the one most proper..." Clark ➡︎

Camp Aug. 6, 1805

Return Camp 5. Madison County Fairgrounds Gazebo (Clark's Group) July 11, 1806

(July 11, 1806)

"at 7 P M I arrived at the Enterance of Wisdom River and Encampd. in the Spot we had encamped the of August last. here we found a Bayonet which had been left & the Canoe quite safe. I directed that all the nails be taken out of this Canoe and paddles to be made of her Sides..." Clark ⬅︎

You Are Here (in red)

Cartographer's Note:

Lewis and Clark scholars have, without a second thought, considered the modern fork of the Jefferson and Wisdom (Big Hole) Rivers as the forks that gave the explorers so much trouble. The traverse in this area proved so faithful and true that it was several hours of work later when this cartographer realized that the modern confluence had been passed. The only piece of journal or modern map evidence that argues against this higher or southern fork and the conclusion that today's Owlsey Slough was indeed the old course of the Wisdom River is the reported water distance of seven miles between the forks and the mouth of Turf Creek on the east fork. However, in the same traverse entry by Clark he gave the line of sight distance between those two points as one mile which would seem to clearly rule out the modern forks. Following the information in the traverse, there is a reference to a bayou precisely at the point of the modern confluence.

So much evidence pointed to this upstream or southern fork that the cartographer, in the interest of scholarly debate, has shown it as the most probable course of the Wisdom River in 1805.

Cartographer's Note:

During the day of August 3, 1805, Lewis and party were traveling south just off this map. They were staying to the bench that skirted the floodplain along this part of the Jefferson River. Travel through the boggy floodplain was difficult. They spent the night on the bench just before coming back into the area covered by this map. From the lay of the trees that lined rivers in this area. Lewis determined that the river forked just to the south and decided to spend the next day exploring the area.

Which Fork to Take?

Meriwether Lewis, traveling ahead with 3 men, reached this spot two days ahead of William Clark and the main party. After exploring the river courses, Lewis left a note telling Clark to stay on the Jefferson River. Clark never found it and started up the Big Hole instead.

The men pulled the boats upstream about nine miles before meeting one of Lewis’ men. Their return trip resulted in a near disaster which almost killed a man.

The expedition was reunited and made camp near here on August 7th. They spent a day drying out their baggage. After repacking, they decided to leave one dugout behind, hidden in a thicket.

”…arrived at the confluence of the two rivers where I left the note. this note had unfortunately been placed on a green pole which the beaver had cut and carried off together with the note; the possibility of such an occurrence never once occurred to me when I placed it on the green pole… Capt. Clark… ascended it (Big Hole River) with much difficulty…”

Meriwether Lewis

August 5th, 1805

”Whitehouse had been thrown out of one of the canoes… a great part of our most valuable stores were wet and much damaged on this occasion… all the baggage wet, the medicine box… lost a shot pouch and horn with all the implements for one rifle lost and never recovered…”

Meriwether Lewis

August 6th, 1805

”…the Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains which runs to the west, this she says here nation calls the beaver’s head…”

Meriwether Lewis

August 8th, 1805

One of the most famous landmarks in Southwest Montana, named for its resemblance to the head of a swimming beaver.

Erected by Montana Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commission and National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Highway 14 Fairgrounds Road, Twin Bridges, Montana Early Twin Bridges offered few public gathering places, and so these fifty acres, once part of the Lott and Seidensticker homesteads, were developed as “The Park” in 1887. A “harvest home barbecue” was held that year, and two years later the event had blossomed into the first annual county fair. Early fairs were privately run and later partially supported by the county. Then, as now, the fair gave ranchers and farmers a chance to show their best produce and livestock while promoting local pride and friendly rivalry. In 1928, a depressed economy curtailed the event and in 1930 Madison County purchased the fairground property. The economy worsened during the Great Depression until 1934, when more than half Madison County’s workforce was unemployed. In 1935, the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) approved funding assistance for the rebuilding of the unused fairground. Construction began in 1936, putting a great number of unemployed residents back to work. WPA engineer C. D. Paxton drew the plans and Tosten Stenberg, well known for his log structures in Yellowstone Park, directed construction.

Local foreman Fred Sommers was brought out of retirement with a special waiver from Washington to supervise the project. Lodgepole pine, fir logs, and other building materials were gathered locally and prepared by workers on site. When the project was completed in 1937, seven masterfully crafted new buildings and one remodeled 1890s structure lent new significance to the traditional fairground. Today the collection of buildings is architecturally significant for its fine design as well as historically important for its WPA construction using entirely local materials and labor.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

WPA engineer C. D. Paxton designed this impressive octagonal community building as part of the federally funded project to rebuild the fairground in 1936. Master log craftsman Tosten Stenberg of WPA headquarters in Livingston supervised the building. The primary construction material is lodgepole pine, chosen for its uniformity and harvested at nearby Ramshorn Creek. Logs are bias-cut and saddle-notched. Poles radiating from a central lantern form the interior rafters and afford a floor space of one hundred feet in diameter. Besides serving as the main hall during fair time, the Pavilion has long been a favorite place for building memories, hosting hundreds of local events. Dances, wedding receptions, family reunions, church functions, political rallies, flea markets, organizational Christmas parties, and even winter roller skating serve to perpetuate the community spirit that built this Madison County treasure.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

August 1805 - The Corps of Discovery struggled upriver toward the Rockies. Illness and injury, along with the increasingly difficult river passage, had eroded the group's morale. But the afternoon of the 8th brought a much needed lift, when expedition guide Sacagawea announced that she recognized a familiar landscape. Her people, the Lemhi Shoshoni, would be close by - with food, supplies, information, and most importantly, horses, for the journey ahead.

The landmark that Sacajawea recognized was Beaverhead Rock, which lies approximately twelve miles ahead. On August 8th, 1805, Meriwether Lewis wrote: "this hill she says her nation calls the beaver's head from a conceived resemblance of it's figure to that head of that animal."

"...the Indian Woman recognizes the point of a high plain...which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation." - Meriwether Lewis, August 08, 1805

Sacagawea, carrying her infant son Jean Baptiste, was about fifteen years old when she helped guide the Corps of Discovery through Southern Montana.

Erected by

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

Gold was the key to the success or failure of many of Montana's mining camps in the 19th century. Roads were almost as important as gold because they made possible the movement of supplies, people, and precious metals between the remote territory and the States. In Montana, many old roads are as fabled as the gold camps they served, including the notorious Road Agent Trail. The trail, like many other roads in Montana, grew out of paths established generations ago by the Indians that were later adapted and used by miners and freighters. It was not engineered in the sense of modern roads, but developed over time to best serve the traffic that used it. Private capitalists established stage stations and ranches along the route to provide food and resting places for passengers and animals — and were hangouts for desperadoes.

Established in 1863, the Road Agent Trail connected Bannack and Virginia City and was an extension of the Montana Road that provided a link between the mining camps and the settlements in Utah. The road wound its way through a region “destitute of vegetation” with “frequent streams, canyons, mountain passes, rocky ledges, willow thickets, and deep embosomed valleys.” The lush grasses of the Beaverhead and Ruby river valleys provided food for the oxen, horses, and mules that pulled the wagons. The 70-mile trip between Bannack and Virginia City could “ordinarily [be] completed between the rising and setting of the sun.”

The trail is indelibly associated with Sheriff Henry Plummer and his infamous outlaw gang. For eight months beginning in the Spring of 1863, the gang systematically terrorized travelers on the trail through intimidation, robbery, and, occasionally, murder. Vigilante chronicler Nathaniel Langford later claimed the area through which the trail passed was “admirably adapted to their purposes” with “ample means of concealment and advantages for attack upon passing trains with very few chances for defense or escape.” Montana legend states that spies placed at the ranches covertly placed marks on horses, wagons and stagecoaches where gold was ripe for the picking. Through that system of “horseback telegraphy” the road agents routinely plundered passengers of their hard-earned gold and other valuables. In December 1863 and January 1864 the reign of terror ended violently as vigilantes from Bannack and Alder Gulch apprehended and hanged over two dozen road agents, including the gang's leader, Henry Plummer.

Today, Montana Highways 41 and 287 closely parallel the old Road Agent Trail. Indeed, when Madison County looked for ways to promote tourism in the area in the 1920s, it designated Montana 287 the Vigilante Trail and blazed it with the old vigilante sign 3-7-77 as a tribute to the early pioneers attempt to bring order to Montana.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Beloved Members of the Corps of Discovery

This Memorial was made possible by the generosity of the

People and Friends of Madison County Sculpted by Dick and Sandi Crane

Erected by The People and Friends of Madison County.

Post-and-beam construction covered with log-veneer siding characterizes this early building inspired by M. H. Lott and built as a community project by area homesteaders in 1894. It is the only remaining building of the original fairground complex, built when the land was privately owned. Salvaged by the WPA-funded project that rebuilt the fairground in the mid-1930s, its remodeling included the addition of casement windows, a hardwood floor, and the log-veneer siding. The building has always served as a central gathering spot at the fair. In the 1960s, the building was renamed the “Jeffers Building” in honor of Lawrence and Jo Jeffers, whose countless hours devoted to Youth Projects, 4-H, and FFA made them true champions of Madison County’s youth.

In, early August, 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, westward bound, came up the Jefferson River and passed through this area. The valley was an ancient travel corridor; Lewis noted the presence of an "old Indian road" near the Big Hole River. The further south up the Jefferson the expedition traveled, the more treacherous the river became. The men were forced to pull the canoes upriver with ropes, tripping over slippery rocks and bruising their feet. By the time they reached this point, their feet were so badly swollen they could hardly walk. In addition, Captain Clark hobbled along with a painful infected leg and George Drouillard was injured after taking a fall down a steep bluff. The Corps was also increasingly preoccupied about contacting the Shoshone and obtaining much-needed horses. On August 4th, they reached the forks of the Ruby and Beaverhead rivers. After little debate, Captain Lewis chose the Beaverhead River as their route and proceeded on toward the main range of the Rocky Mountains. They finally met the Shoshone a week later about 50 miles south of here on the Red Rock River.

Meriwether Lewis, Touissaint Charboneau, Patrick Gass and George Drewyer, the vanguard of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the first white men to enter this valley, camped on the east bank of the Beaverhead River, two blocks west of here, on August 3, 1805.

The main body of the expedition passed this point in canoes on their way to the Pacific Ocean August 7, 1805.

In the bend of the river northwest from here is a ford used by the Indians for centuries before the coming of the white men. Near here Sacajawea caught sight of Beaverhead Rock, which identified this region as the home of her people.

Both before and since the passage of Lewis and Clark, the limestone outcrop in front of you served as an important landmark and meeting area. The Shoshone tribe, from whom Sacagawea had been kidnapped as a child, came to this area every summer. By the time members of the Corps of Discovery caught sight of the rock on August 5, 1805, they had been watching for it for days. and were growing desperate. They needed to find it in order to meet up with the Shoshone, from whom they hoped to obtain horses—the only way they could cross the Rockies before winter. A few days later, they did indeed come upon the Shoshone, whose chief-by an amazing coincidence-was Sacagawea's own brother.

By 1856, one of the ancient trails here had become the primary travel route used by the region's first ranchers for cattle drives. Once gold was discovered in the early 1860s, freight wagons used the Montana-Utah Road to bring supplies to prospectors and the settlers who followed them. In 1863, the present-day Beaver Gateway Ranch became the site of the Point of Rocks Stage Station, which included a hotel, saloon, and post office that operate until 1885. Roads to the Big Hole Valley and to Helena also converged here. Railroads built in the early 1880s made the stage route obsolete, but for at least 22 years nearly everyone traveling to of from Helena, Virginia City or Bannack passed through here.

"the Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains which runs to the west. this hill she says her nation calls the beaver's head from a conceived remblance of it's figure to the head of that animal. she assures us that we shall either find her people on this river or on the river immediately west of it's source; which from it's present size cannot be very distant." - Meriwether Lewis, August 8, 1805

Erected by Undaunted Stewardship.

Many of the rangelands in this valley still look largely as they did even before the Lewis and Clark Expedition walked here. Yet people and animals have traveled through and use the lands around you since prehistoric times. Montana Highway 41, and several other roads here, began as aboriginal trails that converged near the landmark now called Beaverhead Rock. It was the sight of this natural limestone outcrop that brought long-sought relief to the Corps of Discovery in 1805. Barely 60 years later, the pathway here had become part of the well-traveled Montana-Utah Road. Originally used by ranchers, it was later a primary shipping route after gold was discovered in nearby Grasshopper and Alder Gulches in the early 1860s. For a 22-year period in the mid-1800s, the present-day ranchlands also contained a hotel, saloon, post office and stage coach stop. For most of the last 200 years, these landscapes have continued to sustain livestock and wildlife, both coexisting much as prehistoric animals did when grazing together here millions of years ago.

Today, the Beaverhead Gateway Ranch borders federal land and Beaverhead State Park. The ranch features an 118-acre wetland, teeming with birds and wildlife year-around, developed by the Montana Department of Transportation in 1997. With the help of a program called Undaunted Stewardship®, the private ranch property is managed so that livestock grazing will sustain historic vegetative patterns and enhance wildlife and waterfowl habitat. Welcome to a glimpse of this area's ghosts, its life and its future-enjoy your visit.

The lands here have yielded some of the best discoveries in North America of the remains of small mammals that lived at least 37-38 million years ago. Some of the species found here are new to science, and still haven't been found elsewhere. Today, these lands continue to be used for grazing by numerous species of wildlife, including an occasional moose, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope.

Erected by Undaunted Stewardship.

As the Corps of Discovery approached this river valley, the convergence of several rivers presented Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with a choice of routes. Lewis and a few men traveled ahead of Clark to investigate the various rivers. After some exploration, Lewis left a note recommending that Clark take his men and the canoes up the Jefferson River. The note was tied to a sapling at the fork with Wisdom River (Big Hole). The sapling must have been chewed and taken away by a beaver, because Clark never saw it.

When Clark arrived at the rivers' fork he chose to follow the Wisdom. The river proved to be narrow and choked with encroaching willows on its tight curves. One canoe capsized and two were swamped before they before they were discovered by one of Lewis' men and rejoined the group.

Today, the Jefferson River and Valley are known as the Beaverhead, the Wisdom River was renamed the Big Hole, and the Philanthropy was renanded the Ruby.

Jefferson River Beavers

... where I left the note. This note had unfortunately been placed on a green pole which the beaver had cut and carried off together with the note...this accident deprived Capt. Clark of any information with respect to the country." - Meriwether Lewis, August 05, 1805

Beavers (Castor canadensis) were plentiful along the Beaverhead River when the Corps of Discovery passed through this area in 1805. Beaver chew on saplings for the sweet cambium layer just under the bark.

Erected by Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.